Police buildings to be revamped

OLD buildings and Metro police headquarters will be revamped and cameras will be installed and “monitored to mitigate the risk of loss in the uniform stores and armoury”.

This is according a report tabled at a council meeting in Durban on April 26.

Some of the buildings which will be revamped include the Metro police headquarters situated at 16 Archie Gumede Place, the Training Academy, the KwaMashu police station, Verulam police station, Khuzimpi Shezi Police Station in uMlazi, a new Metro police horse unit and Queensburgh stores.

The report outlined various upgrades to be undertaken to Metro police infrastructure to ensure they continue providing an invaluable service to residents.

The work to be undertaken will include repair work on buildings, the installation of new air conditioners, building of new horse stables as well as building a new police station in Verulam.

The report stated that 20% of the R35.9 million budgeted for capital programmes in the 2019/20 financial year will be made available during the 2018/19 financial year.

eThekwini Municipality’s Deputy Head of Communications Mandla Nsele said in a statement: “This amounts to R7.2 million with the balance thereof will continue to be used to complete the projects during 2019”.

The report stated that this will assist the Metro police to start the process of addressing challenges caused by infrastructure that has become old and outdated.

The report was initially submitted to the Safety and Security Committee and outlined what work will exactly be done.

The report notes that Metro police is one of the units which contributes to making eThekwini Municipality one of the most liveable cities through the promotion of the safety of its citizens by enforcing the various eThekwini by-laws, traffic regulation and crime prevention.

According to the report, new land has been identified in Verulam to build a new police station instead of repairing the current building since it has been categorised as a heritage site belonging to Amafa and was in a derelict state.

Deputy City Manager of Finance Krish Kumar said that it was not unusual to bring expenditure forward if there was cash flow available.

Kumar said, however, that this was not something done often by the city but was necessary as these projects required urgent action.

Deputy Mayor Fawzia Peer said that asset management of infrastructure was important. Peer said that the Metro police headquarters was in a bad state.

“We need to manage our buildings to ensure they are not in a dilapidated state, which in the end will cost even more to repair,” Peer said.

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